Galerie Idan Wizen

Telling a story, sublimating the body, becoming a canvas of Masters… The image of the tattoo has evolved considerably in a few decades. Our modern societies have democratized and valued it to make it a very respectable tool for bodily and artistic expression!

Today, 1 person out of 5 is tattooed in France. No more hiding. No more reason to be ashamed.

In Paris, since its opening in 2006, La Bête Humaine has been a benchmark in tattoo parlors. What better place than the contemporary art gallery La Lison, antechamber of the Human Beast, to host the works of Idan Wizen as part of his photographic exhibition, “The Redesigned Skin”.

Since 2009, Idan Wizen has photographed, without casting and without retouching, everyday people, in the simplest device, in an artistic work called “Who’s That Nude In The Living Room?”.

This photographic approach is an ode to the beauty of the most diverse bodies, encouraging us to overcome the shackles and stereotypes of standardized aesthetics. But it is also a reflection on a being removed from any socio-cultural context. The individuals photographed in this way have no clothes that indicate who they are on a daily basis. The decor pulls them out of a place or an era. The absence of a name prevents us from gleaning information. They are what the viewer wants.

However, among the nearly 3000 people who make up the work of Idan Wizen, some, with their tattoos, push you and encourage you to guess who they are or could be. These tattoos, eternal markers on their skin invite us into another narrative, one at the crossroads of this body art and the systemic work of Idan Wizen.

The exhibition “The Redesigned Skin” offers us a modest journey on bare bodies and redesigned skin through around thirty works, as surprising as they are authentic, accessible for acquisition and carefully selected over nearly 15 years of photography.